My Years with Ludwig von Mises.pdf - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

Leoni, who for some time was secretary of the Mont Pelerin Society.
A gifted scholar and professor of law, Leoni headed the
Department of Political Science at the University of Pavia and
shared Lu's views on economics, the free market, and human liberty.
Lu felt it deeply, asa great tragedy, when Bruno Leoni was
brutally murdered in November, 1967.
After 1965, Lu knew it would be too strenuous for him to attend
further Mont Pelerin meetings. He was especially sorry to miss the
meeting in Japan, for in the early thirties he was offered a chair at
one of the most important universities in Japan, and he then had
promised me he would never go to Japan without me.· Now-we
could not go, even together.
But there was an even more important reason for him not to
attend further conferences of the Mont Pelerin Society. He believed
that the society's policy on admission of new members was
not consistent with its original statement of principles.
The members of the society who came through New York never
failed to visit Lu: Hayek, the Roepkes, Rueff, Hunold, Hutt, Arthur
and Barbara Shenfield. They often continued their discussions at
our home.
Rebecca West and her husband Henry Maxwell Andrews also
came to call on us. I did not know at that time that her son, the
writer, Anthony West, called H.G. Wells his father. I knew only
that it was taboo to talk of Wells in Rebecca's presence. I had read
almost everything she had written, and I thought her report about
the war trials in Nuremberg was one of the finest pieces of journalism
I knew. I admired her greatly. She had indescribable charm
and was every inch a lady. Another reason I liked her so much-I
confess it frankly-was her outspoken and genuine admiration for
Lu.
Of all the Mont Pelerin members, we most frequently saw Frederick
Nymeyer, who lives in Chicago and is an enthusiastic and
dynamic follower of Lu's ideas. Fred Nymeyer first wrote to Lu in
1946, when Nymeyer was still business counsellor for many big
business firms and had to travel a great deal. His acquaintance
with Lu's books changed Nymeyer's life. On January 12, 1951, he
wrote to Lu: "As you know I have resolved to 'have a fling' in the
publishing field, and I am interested in trying it out on Boehm­
Bawerk. If I have any luck at all, I shall be interested in expanding
the endeavor in order to provide people in this country with the
whole framework of ideas with which you and associates of the
same 'school' work."
He started his new enterprise with a campaign for a speech Lu
gave at the University Club in New York on April 18, 1950,
"Middle-of-the-Road Policy Leads to Socialism." This speech was
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